The Ultimate Game of Tag
by ShullieQ
Summary: The game is Humans vs Zombies, the best game of tag ever invented. The area of play is their college campus; the time limit is infinite. Don't get tagged. Last human or zombie standing wins. [AU, deiita/itadei pairing but it's not the focus]
1. Chapter 1

**Humans vs Zombies**

**The Ultimate Tag**

[[A/N: So I've been playing around with this for the better part of a year. It's in a slightly different style than what I usually write.

This is a real game! Lots of schools all over play this and the game and the rules belong to the creators. The only addition to the rules is the reward, which you'll read below. I suggest looking at their site and seeing if there's a game near by that you can join in! It's dead fun ;3

Like I said, this is a slightly different style than what I usually use, so let me know what you think!]]

* * *

**Chapter One: **

**The games begin.**

The summer heat bore down on every surface. It would be the hottest day of the season when uniforms and standing in lines were required. Only adults thought uniforms and lines were a good idea. Most stood in attention, but with glazed expressions as they tried to wait out the speeches so they could get out of the heat. Deidara had his head resting against Sasori's back, trying desperately to stay awake, but no longer had the strength to hold his head up.

Sasori put up with it.

Itachi glanced over at them from his line and shook his head slightly. He knew the two of them had been up late playing video games together the night before. He had text Deidara after dinner to remind him that the orientation was at 9, to which the blond had taken fifteen minutes to respond that he remembered. Deidara always had his phone on him, so taking that long meant he had a controller in his hand.

"He's totally out."

"Almost," Itachi replied to Kisame standing behind him. "Sasori looks fine though."

"I don't think that guy actually sleeps," Kisame muttered out of the corner of his mouth when one of the professors over seeing them glanced over.

Itachi reached into his pocket and unlocked his phone. Going from memory, he opened his messages and typed out a text to the blond. After a quick glance to check to see his memory had served him right, he sent the message and went back to paying attention to the speech.

The buzzing in Deidara's pocket woke him up with a small jerk. Standing upright again, he glanced down at it reading the message.

"You better not have drooled on my back."

"I didn't, un."

"What'd Itachi say?"

"How did you know it was Itachi?

"I saw him put his phone away."

Deidara rolled his eyes and glanced over at the brunette diagonally across from them a few yards away. He was paying attention like the good student he was. Deidara just wanted to be in bed. Or at least inside. "He said not to drool on your back," the blond lied, spinning his phone in his hand with a grin.

A professor cleared his throat irritably somewhere behind him, so he hurriedly put his phone away and tried to pay attention to the man standing behind the podium. It was suddenly very easy because he mentioned free money.

"Every year," he began, making generalized gestures as if he were a grandfatherly figure welcoming them to dinner, "our school offers a chance to participate in a game. Whether you participate or not is your decision. It is a game of tag called Humans vs Zombies and the winner will receive a five hundred dollar scholarship which will be issued as a reimbursed check."

Deidara grinned widely. Here was something he could look forward to and he was good at. Sasori glanced back at him. His expression might not seem very different from normal to most, but Sasori and Deidara had been friends since a disastrous finger painting event in kindergarten. The redhead was excited and ready to bite the ankles of anyone who got in his way of winning.

"The game will begin in October, once you've all gotten into the flow of your academic year," the man continued. "During the game, you will be expected to keep up with your classes and grades. Participation is not mandatory. More information will be sent to your school email."

The speeches moved onto boring topics and Deidara's attention drifted again. "You think Itachi will play, un?" he whispered to Sasori's back.

"He doesn't need the money," the redhead muttered back.

"Neither do you," Deidara jabbed him in the back.

His friend was quiet for a moment, possibly ignoring him, possibly thinking. The speech had moved on to rules against pirating things on their internet servers when Sasori glanced back at him again. "Teams would make things easier," he said. "You convince him, but remember I will sacrifice you to win."

Deidara grinned and glanced back at Itachi who was pointedly not looking anywhere but the podium.

"Deidara's smirking at you."

"I know," Itachi muttered back to his friend. He could feel it like a poke in his back. "He's going to want me to play that game."

Kisame snickered quietly. "It'll be fun."

"I'd rather study," Itachi replied as the speaker dismissed them. He turned then and watched the two make their way over to them. "No," he said as Deidara opened his mouth.

The blond glared at him. "You don't even know what I was going to say, un," he miffed, turning his nose up irritably. "I was going to ask if you wanted to go get a snack in the air conditioning."

"No you weren't," Itachi said with a small shake of his head. "I have food in our fridge; we can eat in the dorm."

Deidara and Sasori shared vaguely similar looks at one another then shrugged in acceptance and the four of them followed the throngs to the dorm entrance. "I can't believe no one protested you two sharing a suite," Kisame grinned down at them as they waited for the elevator.

"Nor Deidara and Itachi," Sasori commented without turning around.

Itachi said nothing, though he silently agreed with Kisame. Sharing a dorm with Kisame was logical. They were best friends and worked well with one another. Sharing a dorm with Deidara was not as logical, but still workable. He would just have to set boundaries so the blond wasn't distracting him so much – college was much more demanding than high school. Sharing a dorm with Kisame, Deidara and Sasori seemed a recipe for disaster. All three of his friends enjoyed video games and tv shows far more than the average person should and would distract one another quite a lot. Deidara and Sasori got into an argument at least once a day; Itachi had even heard Deidara's parents and Sasori's grandmother telling them not to break anything in their first semester. Each had their own different triggers and Itachi had grown increasingly use to their bickering over the last few years of high school.

The door to their suite on the fifth floor opened into a shared living room and kitchen. Signs of parental involvement were apparent as they glanced around. Kisame's huge flat screen was set up across from the sofa and stuffed chair, next to Deidara's xbox and Sasori's wii, the two having collaborated so that there weren't doubles of something. The kitchen was set up with supplies and the fridge had food in it already. Itachi handed the note attached to the fridge to Deidara from his mother reminding him that despite how much as he wanted to, he couldn't live off of pizza. Deidara crumpled it up and threw it away.

"They didn't let us choose our rooms," Deidara complained, noting their suitcases weren't in the piles they had made before hurrying off to the assembly. He quickly slipped down the right hallway and glanced into each of the rooms looking for his things, grumbling irritably. "Sasori! This one's yours. Oh, mine's next to yours, un.."

Taking the cue, Kisame and Itachi turned down the left hallway and found their own rooms. Deidara might complain, but their parents seem to have chosen their rooms with some care. His room had the window facing the sun which would be nice in the morning. His parents had put his things away in their compartments, made his bed and left his laptop on the desk. The bed was higher than most beds should be, containing vast space underneath for compartments.

Itachi turned to glance back down the hallway. From his open door, he had a straight view of Sasori's room and he couldn't help but snort quietly as he watched the redhead clambering onto the high bed quite ungracefully. The redhead noticed him and glared, hopping off the bed to slam his door shut. Deidara yelled at Sasori for slamming it so loudly, then again for ignoring him.

A few minutes later, Deidara came to visit, slipping in without knocking. "The beds are so high, un," he laughed quietly.

"Sasori saw me watching him try to get up, that's why he slammed the door," Itachi told him, watching the blond bust out laughing and hop up onto Itachi bed.

"They're like prison mattresses, un," the blond complained as Itachi moved over to sit down next to him. "I'll have to sleep over a lot so you can be comfortable."

"That's fine," the brunette commented. "I don't think Sasori would appreciate us in your room anyway."

"You're still invited though."

"Thanks." Itachi leaned down to give the blond kisses, but was interrupted from doing more when Sasori cleared his throat loudly.

"I thought we were eating," he said from the door.

"I am eating," Deidara said with a purr, wrapping his arms around Itachi to pull him close.

"Ew. Don't ever say that in that context ever again," the redhead made a face, but backed away from the door.

Deidara leaned up and nibbled on Itachi's ear lobe, making fake munching sounds. "He's so funny, un."

"If you say so," Itachi commented, pushing himself to sit up again. He didn't really think Sasori was funny, but Deidara thought many strange things were funny so he let it slide. "Let's go then before he has a cow."

* * *

The blond wasn't sure whether or not it had been his idea to share classes with Sasori. He suspected that it had been Sasori's idea, planted into his mind to seem like his own idea so that Sasori wouldn't have to admit that after 12 grades of school together, he would miss him. Deidara glanced sideways at the redhead twirling his pen across his index finger. He was paying attention to the professor explaining their next written assignment, Deidara was not.

"Hey, Sas—" he stopped when Sasori held up his finger, not looking at him. Deidara glared at him. If he didn't want to talk in class, why did he sit next to him in each of their shared classes?

Usually when Sasori shushed him with a finger, he just wanted to finish a thought and would indicate when Deidara could speak again, but despite patiently waiting the entire class, Sasori didn't speak to him until the teacher dismissed him. "What?" he finally asked.

"I forgot, un," Deidara glared at him.

"Good," Sasori commented as they walked out together.

Deidara glared at him, but followed as they stepped out into the September air. They'd been attending classes for weeks now, slowly getting into the flow of things in college which they both found were much more difficult than either of them expected. It wasn't difficult like high school, but full of fake lures of relaxation. Neither of them had as much time to play video games to relax as they expected either and usually was what they resorted to when their brains were fried from studying.

"Hey, Itachi," Deidara said when the man caught up with them after his class finished. He accepted the blonds hug even though they were in the middle of the open courtyard. "I hate that class, un. It's so dull and Sasori wont talk to me."

"I was taking notes on the assignment," Sasori informed him darkly. "Don't expect me to let you copy them either."

"Yes you will~" Deidara smirked at him, leaning back against Itachi.

Before the two could start fighting, Itachi held his phone in front of Deidara to show him the email he had received during class. "They sent out the information about the game," he told him, waving it like a hypnotist's watch.

"Really?" Deidara grinned, snatching it out of his hand. Sasori started to walk over to look, but thought better of it and pulled his own phone out of his bag to read it himself.

"Humans vs Zombies," Deidara read aloud, "is a game of tag. All players begin as humans and one is chosen at random to be Patient Zero. Patient Zero tags human players and turns them to zombies. Zombies must tag and eat a human every 48 hours or they starve to death and are out of the game, un."

"How long is this game going to go on for?" Itachi asked.

"Looks like until someone wins," Sasori said, scrolling through the email. "'Zombies win when all human players are tagged and turned into zombies – zombie with the most tags wins the grand prize. Humans win by surviving long enough for all the zombies to starve – last human standing wins.'"

"'The game can be played within the borders of the campus,'" Deidara read on. "'Safe zones, or no play zones, include academic buildings, libraries, athletic facilities, health centers and bathrooms. However, once you leave the areas you are back into gameplay.

"'Equipment includes: a bandanna, a foam dart blaster and-slash-or socks—' Socks?" he questioned quietly.

"As a weapon to throw I guess," Kisame commented, having walked up while Deidara was reading.

" '… and one index card,'" Deidara continued.

"'**Human rules**.

Stay on campus: humans must sleep on campus. If you need to leave campus longer than 24 hours, contact your RA and remove yourself from the game.

ID number: Humans must keep an index card with their unique ID number on them at all times to be handed over to the zombie if tagged.

Stunning a Zombie: humans may stun a zombie for 15 minutes by blasting them with a dart blaster or throwing a sock at them.

When tagged: Human must surrender their ID card to the zombie. One hour after being tagged, tie your bandana around your head – you are now a member of team zombie!

Wearing a bandanna: humans must wear a bandanna around an arm or leg to identify them as a player.

"'**Zombie Rules**.

Feed: zombies must feed every 48 hours. A zombie feeds by reporting their tags to the game moderators via email.

Wearing a Headband: zombies must wear a bandanna around their heads at all times.

Tagging: a tag is a firm touch on any part of the human. After tagging a human the zombie must collect their ID card and report the tag via email to the game moderators.

Getting shot: when hit with a dart or sock, a zombie is stunned for 15 minutes. A stunned zombie cannot interact in the game.'

"…. and then 'no shooting non-players', 'no tagging or shooting in safe zones', 'zombies can't use shields', 'students must continue to uphold their academic grades while playing the game.' 'Don't be a douchebag'—haha, it actually says douchebag. 'This is a game and it is played for fun, though there is a prize for the winner. If foul play is detected, the student will be immediately removed from game.'"

"'To sign up and receive your equipment, see your RA at your individual dorms'," Sasori finished, glancing up from his phone. "'The battle begins October 1st'"

"Awesome," Deidara grinned, returning Itachi's phone to him. "You're going to play with us, right?"

"I am," Kisame smirked.

"We have school," Itachi reminded them with a frown, but Deidara and Kisame waved him off.

"No problem, un," Deidara said, turning to face him. "Sasori says he wants you to partner up with us. iSasori/i did."

"No, I didn't."

Deidara gave Itachi a knowing nod and grinned. "So we have five days to prepare, un," he stated, rubbing his hands together.

"Prepare?" Itachi asked with a raised eyebrow. His three friends gave him the looks of movie addicts who had to explain something simple to a normal person.

"Food," Kisame began, tapping his finger. "In case we can't get to the cafeteria. Flashlights, batteries, matches…"

"A screwdriver, a knife, a map," Sasori continued, rubbing his chin in thought.

"Duct tape, un…. Fishing wire, a map, first aid ki—"

Itachi held his hands up. "Whoa, hold on," he said, his lips turning upward slightly. "This is just a game of tag, not a real zombie attack. You guys watch too many movies."

"And yet we're still alive, un," Deidara said dramatically, gesturing around them.

Itachi gave a small snort. "Because there are no zombies," he reminded him.

"Famous last words," Deidara smirked.

The brunette frowned a little. "No, Dei, there isn't, but if you are so hell bent on pretending for fun, I guess I'll play along," he said. Deidara had been bothering him nearly every night to play the game with them. He didn't really see the point. He didn't need the money – none of them did really, it would cut into their study time because people could potentially wait outside of the doors for them. And their dorms. Itachi cringed a little. Dorms were not listed among the safe zones, which meant people could just wait outside their dorm room for them.

This game was suddenly sounding more work than necessary.

Despite assignments that needed to be completed, the four of them began gathering supplies. Deidara spent the time explaining to Itachi what zombies were like and how people survive in zombie apocalypse. Unfortunately, Itachi had no patience for movies so he couldn't learn from that, but Deidara never got tired of talking so he sat on Itachi's desk at night next to his computer while Itachi worked and told him about different stories of apocalypses. How Deidara was going to get anything done was beyond Itachi and how Itachi got anything done with him talking was beyond Deidara, but it didn't stop either of them.

"Hey, Itachi," Deidara said, leaning forward a little.

"Hm?" Itachi hummed as he took notes on the passages in his Anthropology book.

He leaned closed and nudged the top of Itachi's head with his own. "Do you not want to play the game with us, un?" he asked quietly.

Itachi glanced up at him, watching him just a moment before he gave a small smile and put his pen down. "No, I do," he told him, resting his hand on his knee to pat it lightly. "I know you're excited about it and it does sound like fun."

"Yeah it does," Deidara smirked, swinging his feet. "Tomorrow it begins~" He pulled his bandanna out of his pocket and shook it in front of Itachi. "Sasori's in his room planning outfits."

"Outfits?" Itachi gave him his own little smirk and glanced at their closed door. Their dorm mates had informed them that they must keep it their doors shut at all times when they were in the same room. Apparently Sasori didn't enjoy watching them kiss and Kisame had just kept smirking at them and shutting the door as if he was expecting them to have sex at every opportune moment.

"Yup," Deidara snickered and slid off the desk to wedge himself onto his lap between the desk and Itachi. "He's really excited. Been planning for the apocalypse since my uncle let us watch Dawn of the Dead when we were kids. He loves it, un."

"And you?" Itachi leaned his chair back and placed his hands on his hips.

"Walking Dead comics, un," Deidara grinned. "They're awesome."

"I've seen you reading them," Itachi nodded, thinking back to weekends spent lounging in tangles on the bed. Deidara did like reading comics. "So is he going to come out in his combat outfit? We still have class though. We have to wear uniforms."

"I dunno, I didn't ask him, un. Can't talk to the little shrimp," he added loudly, glancing at the door. A few minutes later his phone buzzed from a text message: 'I heard that.'

Itachi grinned and leaned up to sneak a kiss. "You're pretty short yourself."

"I'm fun sized," the blond laughed and Itachi nodded in agreement. He text Sasori back asking if he was going to get to approve his outfits.

"Do you have anything due tomorrow?"

The blond looked annoyed to be talking about school, but he stretched his back out and sighed. "No… I have an essay due in a few days, but I finished it this morning, un."

"When?" Itachi asked in surprise.

"Before breakfast."

"You were asleep…"

"When you were jogging with Kisame," Deidara smirked at his bafflement. "I know. I'm awesome and sneaky, un." His phone buzzed again; Sasori had sent him a picture of various things he had put together and made laid out on his bed and showed it to Itachi, despite the fact that the text that came with the picture said 'don't show Itachi.' He wiggled a little in his lap and grinned. "Let's go to bed. The games begin tomorrow and we might not get another decent sleep."

"You hate sleeping," Itachi laughed quietly.

"Well, I might miss something, un," Deidara grumbled quietly. "But I didn't say sleep, I said go to bed."

"Alright, alright," Itachi smirked and picked Deidara up as he stood and walked over to the bed. "You were right anyway. The bed is really uncomfortable without you." Climbing up on the bed, he laid on top of the blond and sighed contently. He never noticed how much his eyes hurt from working until he was pulled away from it and allowed them to relax.

"I'm still in my clothes~" the blond reminded him with a small wiggle. "And the lights are still on."

Itachi lift his head up and smiled at him. "I know, you're just so easy to cuddle with," Itachi said, but slid off the bed and went to turn the light off. The room went temporarily black, but his eyes soon got use to the light shining from the light posts outside. When he could see better again, he turned back to see Deidara dumping his clothes unceremoniously onto the floor. Itachi smiled and did the same, crawling into bed in just his boxers and pulled the blankets over their heads, blinding both of them. Deidara nuzzled around until he found the curve of Itachi's neck and nipped it gently, but they didn't do anything more. He kept squirming in excitement at the thought of the next day until Itachi pinched him and told him if he didn't stop he'd have to go sleep in his own bed.

Despite being prepared and excited very little happened that morning on their way to class. As the rules stated, it took one hour for the 'infection' to spread when people were tagged, so all they had to do was avoid Patient Zero until after classes were over. Itachi gave Deidara an apologetic smile at his annoyance as they parted ways in the science building.

"Hey Deidara?"

"Hm?" the blond didn't look up as he measured out the liquid in the testing tube. He wished he didn't have to wear these stupid goggles and gloves while handling these things, but he supposed he liked his hands and his eyes so he had better keep them on regardless.

Sasori tried not to appear as though what he wanted to ask was bothering him, even though his friend wasn't actually looking his way. "Do your parents call you a lot?"

"Dad use to call me twice a day, but mom told him to stop, un," Deidara said as he carefully poured the liquid into the beaker. He picked up another small tube and swirled it gently then looked over at Sasori. "Why?"

"My grandmother only called me once," he muttered in response, still not looking at him.

Deidara grinned at him and leaned forward to pretend to peer at his face. "You hate when she calls you all the time, un. Maybe she's letting you be a big boy and look you're all upset."

"I am not upset," Sasori snapped, elbowing him in the side. "Just confused…" There was another long pause as Sasori watched Deidara mix their chemicals, working himself up to ask, "Are you going home for break?"

"You're already thinking about break?" Deidara laughed aloud, but stopped when the professor gave him a quelling look. "We're going skiing I think, un."

Sasori turned and looked at him expectantly, but Deidara just smiled blankly at him. The redhead looked irritated and stared instead at the beaker of clear chemicals. When Deidara went back to mixing what their assignment, Sasori lost patience. "Are you going to invite me?" he asked.

Deidara feigned bewilderment. "Are you inviting yourself to my vacation?" he asked as if Sasori hadn't gone on nearly every family vacation of his since they were children.

Irritably, Sasori kicked the back of his knee and started to argue, but noticed Deidara had been carefully dripping another chemical into the heated beaker and had accidentally spilled it all inside. The blond, who knew far more about chemicals – especially explosive ones – cursed and ducked under the table and Sasori imitated it without thinking. Even if Deidara was kidding, he wasn't going to risk it regardless of how stupid he looked. He hadn't been joking, above them there was an angry hissing sound and then several screams as white foam billowed up and out from the beaker that shattered, sending the foam out into a several foot radius around it. Chairs and tables scraped the floor as people hurriedly backed away to avoid it.

Deidara pointed accusingly at Sasori without saying anything, but the redhead shook his head and pointed back. The blond pointed harder, mouthing that it was Sasori's fault, but he continued to shake his head and point back with earnest.

"Get up you two."

Deidara cringed and carefully slipped out from under the table. He didn't want to touch the foam in case it burned – though glancing around the room he noticed that people covered in it were not screaming in pain. Still, it was safer not to touch. "It's his fault, un," Deidara insisted, pointing again at Sasori. "He hit me."

"You should be more careful," Sasori said to him, glancing around then scooping up a handful of the foam.

"Both of you are staying after class to clean up this mess," the professor said irritably. "I have a class in this room forty-five minutes. I expect it to be spotless. Everyone else, please pack your things up, properly dispose of your chemicals and you may go early. You two. Stay."

"This is actually your fault this time, un," Deidara muttered, swatting the foam out of Sasori's hands. "Don't touch it."

"It doesn't hurt," Sasori informed him, but didn't pull his hand away when Deidara dragged him over to the sink to rinse it off with cold water. The blond didn't care whether it hurt or not, it was still a chemical mixture he didn't know about. Sasori held still for him as he washed his hand for him then grudgingly put gloves on as well and they began cleaning up the mess, picking up glass to throw away.

"You know, I think I'm going to tell my parents you were busy this break, un," Deidara muttered as he disposed of the towels he'd been using. "I can't believe you made me spill all of that."

Sasori glared at him and dropped the glass into the bin. "Your mom wouldn't let me be busy," he said defensively as Deidara pulled bleach from the cabinets to clean the countertops.

They were finished when their professor came back to check on them. He told them off again, but let them go with extra homework. Itachi and Kisame were waiting by the door for them, looking a little concerned by their lateness. "You smell strange," Itachi commented when Deidara heaved a sigh and rest his head against him.

"Sasori made me spill chemicals all over the classroom, un," Deidara complained to the brunette. "It's bleach you're smelling… If you want to come skiing with me, just say it outright instead of getting all embarrassed about it." He wrapped his arms around Itachi's waist and smirked back at Sasori. "I've known you since you were five, I know you're not cool so stop pretending you are, un."

Kisame snorted softly as Sasori glared at them all. "Hang on," he said, snatching Sasori by the back of his uniform and pulled him back. "Don't just go running out there in a huff. The game's on, remember?"

"Right," the redhead muttered, tugging his jacket back on and shouldering his bag. He wouldn't look at them, but glared irritably at anyone who passed them.

"Ready to play tag?" Deidara grinned up at Itachi.

The brunette glanced down at him and nodded. "It's just regular tag though, right?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"But with zombies," Deidara bounced on his toes. "Should we go back to the dorms to eat? Zombies could trap us though, un. I don't have classes till two."

Itachi reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a plastic gun. "We'll just have to shoot them," he said, Deidara's excitement leaking out on him as it usually did. "Hey," he whispered when they made their way to the door, nodding his head to Sasori's back. "What happened?"

"I was just teasing him," Deidara said with a tilt of his head. "He got mad." Itachi stared at Sasori's back then down at Deidara's confused expression. "What? He always comes with us on vacation, I don't know why he's all shy about asking, un."

"Maybe he wants to feel wanted?" Itachi suggested, keeping his voice low so the redhead didn't overhear them.

The blond threw his head back and laughed. "No way," he snickered. "He just a little prince, un."

"Invite him," Itachi said, shouldering his bag again.

"What?"

"Just do it," Itachi smiled and adjusted the bandanna on the blond's arm.

The four of them opened the door and stepped out, glancing around for individuals with bandannas on their heads. Most people were going about their day, walking quickly to classes with their arms full of books and binders. Quite a number of people were – like them – glancing around looking for zombie taggers. A commotion by the library drew their attention as people screamed and ran as the zombies began emerging, chasing students around the stone paths. Going around the building, they took a shortcut of Kisame's and climbed a fence to hurry across the athletic field towards the dorms.

"This is dull," Sasori complained when they had got into their dorm room. The only trouble they had was in the elevator, but Itachi had shot the zombie with his nerf gun and they had sent the man back down towards the first floor.

"It's only the first day, it'll get more exciting," Kisame sniggered as he opened the fridge. "How long do you have between classes?"

"My next one is at three," Itachi said, going behind the counter to help.

"Two," Sasori replied, sitting on the couch.

"Same, un."

"Cool, I'll make curry," Kisame said, pulling out various items from the fridge. Itachi gave an absentminded nod and began helping his friend prepare the meal. They had talked before the semester started about food. None of them were star chefs, but some were better than others and Sasori's grandmother had – in their mind – come up with the most brilliant idea of making large pots of something that would last them a week. Sasori never learned how to do anything but eat raw vegetables and make sandwiches on his own, so he was often left with the duty of doing dishes. The redhead didn't mind since that meant he knew that all the dishes they ate off of were clean.

Deidara sat down on the sofa next to Sasori and slowly slid closer to him until the redhead had wedged himself into the very edge of the sofa against the armrest trying to get away. "What do you want?" Sasori finally snapped angrily.

The blond grinned and wrapped his arms around the protesting man's head. "Of course I want you to come skiing with us, un," he whispered into the side of head. "Think you can get away early so you can stay for Christmas too?"

Sasori stopped fighting and sighed a long, exasperated sigh. "Maybe," he muttered, but Deidara could feel him smiling. "Let go of my head."

"But I love your head."

"Get off."

"Are you still upset?"

"I never was upset."

"Did I hurt your feelings, Sasori?"

"No."

"Were you worried I forgot about you, un?"

"Get off of me!" Sasori started shoving and squirming to attempt to get out of the blond's embrace, but Deidara wouldn't let go. "Itachi get your stupid ass boyfriend off of me."

"Why? Am I making you uncomfortable, un?" Deidara crooned then planted a kiss on his lips. Pulling away from the stunned redhead, he smashed him in the face with a pillow then bolted away before he could recover and kill him.

"Hey," Itachi muttered when Deidara came up behind him and hugged him. "I saw that."

Deidara gave him a wild smirk and nuzzled against the back of his shoulder. "Sorry," he crooned, but Itachi just gave him a backwards smile. "I was just messing with him, un."

"I know," Itachi said, stirring the rice in the cooker. "I've gotten use to you two."

Deidara snorted and rest his chin on his shoulder. "You make it sound like that happens all the time, un," he complained.

"I thought you two were together when we first met," Kisame commented as he stirred. "Or really weird siblings."

"We tried that… once. Didn't work," Deidara grinned, but didn't elaborate on which one they had tried. "Besides, I have this sexy beast, why would I want that little stick over there, un?"

"Please stop saying things like that," Itachi said calmly as Sasori shot them irritable looks and shut himself in the bathroom. They could hear the water running; Sasori was brushing his teeth. He glanced backwards at Deidara and gave him a small grin. "Ten more minutes," he said.

"Kay," Deidara said, then slipped between them carefully and went to pick the lock in the bathroom. Sasori made a loud protest through his toothpaste, but Deidara shut himself in with him.

"Those two are so hilarious," Kisame snickered. "Never a dull moment."

"That's what I like about them too," Itachi said after a moment of thought.

"Hey, we're friends, how come you don't kiss me?"

Startled, Itachi turned to stare, but saw Kisame was grinning. "I don't think normal friends act like them," Itachi commented. "Anyone else would be a problem." The two of them been together long enough that Itachi knew Deidara. Really knew him. He wouldn't do anything with anyone else, but his history with Sasori was much longer. They were best friends and practically siblings, though sometimes blind to one another's' feelings. Yet they always seemed to make it up to each other.

Later that night, Sasori glowered at the ceiling, his DS limp in his hand by his side, forgotten. He had been extremely stupid today and paid for it in Deidara's teasing. Usually Deidara would be his annoying self about planned trips in July, talking non-stop and complaining that they would never come, but he hadn't mentioned it at all. He knew they were going; Deidara's parents had talked about it a few times over dinner. Sasori's parents had died when he was eight, and since then Deidara's parents had been taking him on their vacations as if he was their second child. His grandmother was too old to take him many places, so every amusement park, resort, camping and beach trip he had ever gone on had been with Deidara's family. All of them – Itachi and Kisame's families as well – had gone to the beach together after their graduation, but he hadn't realized how worried he was that that had been their last trip until he had noticed the lack of phone calls from home and how no one had mentioned winter break before.

He grabbed his pillow and pulled it over his head. And then Deidara had to make fun of him for asking. And then kiss him like that. He made a gagging sound against his pillow even though there was no one around to hear his thoughts.

Pausing, he lifted the pillow off his face and glanced at the window. The fabric had been obstructing his hearing, but he was sure that he had heard someone screaming outside. Heaving another sign, he got up and went to climb on top of his desk to look outside. His view was of the smaller drop off lot in the front of the dorm and the large, tree covered hill that lead up towards another dorm and then the rest of the campus. No one was outside, though it was two in the morning.

He frowned and pulled away again. Opening his door, he glanced at Deidara's and slipped out to try it. It was unlocked. He went inside and walked over to the mound on the bed. "Hey," he poked it and waited for the blond to roll over. "I heard something."

"What?" the blond murmured sleepily, rubbing his face with his hand. "What's wrong, Sasori? What time is it, un?"

"It's two AM," Sasori said, climbing over the blond to open the window.

"What are you doing, un?" he whined. Deidara tried to sit up, but was too tired and just rest his head against Sasori's side.

"I heard something," he repeated.

"You were dreaming, un. Let me go back to sleep…"

"No, I wasn't," Sasori insisted. "I heard someone scream or something." He turned to look down at the blond, but he had fallen back to sleep against his side. Grumbling, he pushed the blond back onto the bed, but instead of going back to his own room he laid down next to him and continued to frown at the ceiling.

He had heard something…

* * *

"We're awesome, un," Deidara snickered as he shot a zombie chasing them. Four days of the game had made a wider ratio between zombies and humans, but the four of them were still playing humans. Collapsing into the language arts building after a particularly long chase across the grounds, he gasped for breath, but grinned at all of them. "No one can touch us!"

"Yeah, we're pretty awesome," Kisame grinned, picking him up onto his feet again. "All those video games, huh?"

"And Itachi says they're all useless," Deidara smirked at the brunette who was putting his gun and the extra darts he'd picked up away in his bag.

"I think that athletics have been helping much more than your video games," Itachi commented as Deidara and Sasori heaved for breath against the wall.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," the blond waved him off, clutching his sides. "One more class… then can we go out tonight?" he asked Itachi.

"We'll see," the brunette said as they climbed up the stairs. "Good luck on your quiz."

Deidara sat down in his seat next in between Sasori and the window and sighed heavily. "I hate quizzes…" he muttered when the professor handed out the paper. What? It wasn't even a multiple choice test. Taking out his pen, he propped his chin up and started going over the questions. He wasn't stupid. He did study. In fact, he studied a lot even though most people assumed he didn't. In high school, a lot of people wondered how he and Itachi ever worked. Itachi was a genius and successful, but so was Deidara. He had the potential of being so. He just didn't feel like it. Itachi recognized that in him without even seeing him do anything school worthy. He called him clever. Deidara had been stuck ever since.

Deidara grinned at the memory. "I'm going out with Itachi tonight," he muttered to himself.

"No one cares," Sasori said, scribbling away.

"I was just thinking about the day we met," Deidara continued with a smirk. "Not you and me, I mean Itachi."

"Again, no one cares."

"You were in my bed again this morning, Sasori," Deidara said, pointing his pen at the redhead. "Have you been having bad dreams or something, un?"

Sasori glared at him, but didn't take the bait. "I wake you up, do you not remember?" he asked, turning the page.

"No talking you two."

"Yes, sir," Deidara said, leaning over his paper again and began to write his answers down. "No, I don't remember, you keep coming in when I'm asleep like a creeper. What happened?"

"I heard someone scream and went to see if you had heard it, but you kept falling back to sleep," Sasori explained, barely moving his mouth.

"Four days ago?"

"Yes."

"And you kept coming in to sleep with me, un? Scared?"

"We were talking two nights ago and the night before we were working on an essay."

"And you were too lazy to go back to your own bed three feet away?" Deidara smirked sideways at him.

"I heard something weird last night again, but you would not wake up," Sasori glared at him as if his inability to fall asleep easily was the blond's fault. "I just hear people outside and it doesn't sound right."

"I don't require assigned seats, but I will move you two apart if you don't stop," their teacher said from his desk.

Still smirking, Deidara ducked his head down and continued filling out his answers in as precise wording as possible. Sasori had his completely stoic expression on, which meant no teasing would rile him up. Sleeping in the same bed was completely normal. Deidara still remembered when his parents had informed them that the reason they bought a bunk bed for Deidara's room wasn't so they could make a fort, but for them to have their own beds. The idea just never crossed their minds and they only ever used it as a play thing. Even now if they spent the night, they crammed themselves into the same bed.

"You're sure you weren't dreaming, un?"

Sasori nodded.

"Finished!" Deidara said as the professor walked over to scold them again. "Look, I'm done." He grinned happily as the professor glanced over it and looked up at him suspiciously. "I'm awesome," he added, leaning back in his chair.

Sasori muttered something under his breath that sounded like 'show off'.

"Sorry, professor, I've just got a hot date tonight, so I wanted to get out early, un," Deidara grinned up at the man.

His professor stared down at him, half exasperated and half amused, but looked over the paper and handed it back to him. "You forgot to put your name on it. I can't let you out that early though, so please sit quietly if you really think you've written everything."

Grumbling, Deidara took the paper back and quickly wrote his name on the front page and obediently went over the sheet again. Really, it wouldn't help him to leave early because there was no way Itachi would miss a single minute of class, so he would just be getting more and more twitchy while waiting which would annoy the brunette. He forced himself to lay his head down on the desk and will the clock to move faster.

When he was finally allowed to leave, he hurried down to the second floor corridor where Itachi's class was located, sitting down in the bench nearby. Itachi came out several minutes later and went to sit down next to him, setting his bag on the ground far more gracefully than the blond had done earlier. Deidara grinned at him and Itachi gave him a smile as the blond slid over to sit closer to him. "How was class?" he asked, stretching his legs out in front of them.

"Interesting," Itachi replied. "How was your test?"

"Easy-peasy," the blond said, grinning deviously. "Did you need to do anything else, un? Or are you ready to go?"

"Hm? Go where?" Itachi asked, glancing up at the ceiling.

"Out!" Deidara cried, giving him a shove. "Don't mess with me, we haven't gone out in ages cause you're so busy, un!"

"I know I'm teasing," Itachi said, leaning down to gently bump heads with him. "I'm ready to go now."

"We'll have to fight our way to the front gate, un," Deidara said with a gleam in his eye. "Like in a movie," he whispered intently. "It's so cool, right?"

"Yes, very cool," Itachi smiled, giving the blond's ponytail a small tug. "Come on."

"No, no," Deidara cried, dragging him away from the stairs they usually went down. "We can't go out the front door; they'll be waiting for people, un! We have to go out the side entrance through the basement."

"What?" Itachi turned and stared at him. "How do you get to the basement—how do you know it's there?"

Deidara smirked, looking incredibly pleased with himself. "It was locked," he explained, taking Itachi's hand and leading him away. The brunette shook his head, but let himself be led to a different stairwell, shouldering his school bag as he tried to slow the excited blond down a little. When they reached the stairwell, he watched Deidara pick the lock, not really surprised that the blond knew about this. No one in the world hated locked doors as much as Deidara did. "Okay," the blond said, crouching down low and beckoned for Itachi to do the same. "I say we sneak out, heading low and should avoid the bushes cause there's probably zombies hiding in them waiting to jump out, un. We'll save our bullets for the way back in and make a run for it if we have to, okay?"

"Yes, sounds good."

"Why are you laughing at me?" Deidara demanded, pulling a face at him.

They were alone in the dimmed hallway; Itachi gave Deidara's backside a firm pat. "Nothing, you just look cute," he told him, standing back up again.

"It's not cute, this is war, un," Deidara insisted, though he was grinning.

"Deidara," Itachi said in his patient voice, though he was still smiling. He stood as well and leaned in to give him a kiss on his forehead. "It's not war, it's tag, but let's go on this date."

The blond gave an enormous roll of his eyes and cracked the newly unlocked door. They ran across the courtyard, ducking low as they did so as not to call attention to themselves. There was a group of zombies waiting outside the door like Deidara had expected, chasing down laughing, shrieking people while imitating zombie growls. They followed Deidara's plan, walking casually when they had to move in the open so as not to draw attention to themselves, they only had to sprint the last length of street to get passed the gate. A few zombies chased them, but once they stepped over the school boundaries, they were safe from the game. The zombies laughed and shouted reminders that they weren't allowed to sleep outside of the school grounds before running off to find more humans.

Itachi let the blond, far less athletic than he was, catch his breath then walked with him into the city. They didn't talk much as they stopped for coffee then walked to the nearest movie theater. Both of them were tired from their classes and waited for the movie to start with their fingers laced together. Deidara, always in a hurry, finished his coffee first and tossed the empty cup away before leaning against Itachi's shoulder. Itachi smiled down at him while the blond grinned up.

"All alone," Itachi murmured.

"Let's sit in the back, un," Deidara smirked. "In case the movie's boring."

Itachi gave a small snort into his cup and leaned down. "Everything is boring compared to you," he whispered in his ear. Deidara gave him a devious smirk and led him into the cinema where they scrambled up the stairs to the back seats, wasting no time in getting comfortable. Most movies were often less entertaining than other things to the two of them.

* * *

Stepping up to the sink, Sasori turned the hot water on and washed his hands. Without Deidara to rush him out of the buildings it took him much longer than usual to leave. It was annoying, but he didn't exactly want the blond hanging around him all the time. He stuffed his hands under the dryer and watched the droplets being blown away from it. Tonight he'd test out the new game he'd been putting off. Kisame would probably watch, maybe they could order pizza.

Leaving the bathroom, he shouldered his bag and wandered towards the stairwell. Deidara had given him a tip to use the janitor's door on his way out to avoid getting caught, which he would take without mentioning that he accepted the suggestion. He paused as he passed an open classroom door. There were a few people in the room, almost out of sight, but one of them had moved. They were gathered together and out of curiosity he stepped into the entrance to look closer. Two men and a woman were surrounding someone on the classroom floor. He didn't want to become involved with people. If the person was hurt, they could always call for an ambulance or security, but if they were doing something to them, he'd rather get out. He hated being involved with something, preferring to watch from afar.

"What's wrong?" he asked, instantly wishing he hadn't said anything.

The person on the ground was a man and he turned to look up at Sasori with wide terrified eyes. "Help," he croaked out as the people surrounding him slowly turned in their crouches to look at him.

Sasori's eyebrows rose slightly in his surprise. They were covered in blood. He hadn't really expected anyone other than Deidara and himself to get very into the games, but if he had been a zombie, he supposed he would have dressed up too. He gave a soft 'hmph' of acknowledgement, but didn't say anything. He didn't really want to interact with anyone and speaking might lead to conversation he didn't want to have. They weren't any threat to him anyway, they couldn't tag him inside the building. One of the zombie players stood up slightly unbalanced and Sasori's stomach lurched a little with his clear view of the person on the floor.

His stomach was hollowed out.

Was this some sort of special effects? If so, these people were way too into the game. More so than he cared to get involved with. He backed out of the room and the players tracked his movements, the man on the floor made a quiet desperate noise before it faded to nothing and his hand stilled. Way to into the game.

But what if they weren't pretending?

Sasori shook his head. That was stupid. Turning, he walked smartly to the stairwell and began his decent, walking at a pace that wouldn't look like he was running away but still put some distance between himself and the strange players. As he passed the large '2' on the wall, indicating the floor, he stopped and stared down. A girl was climbing the stairs, breathing raggedly as she used her hands to pull herself up, something shiny in her fist that made a soft squelching noise when she placed her hand down.

"What the fuck," he muttered, starting slightly as she turned her head towards the sound, her crawling quickening.

Without a second thought, Sasori turned on his heel and threw the door to the second floor opened. He had never been on this floor; didn't know what sorts of classes were taught here. It was empty. Everyone had gone back to the dorms after their last class. It was his own fault for taking so long to leave that he was alone. Alone except for these people who made his hair on the back of his neck stand on end. He tried the first classroom door. Locked. And the next, and the next. He felt a small panic creeping up from his stomach, but he forced it down. He was not someone who panicked.

Finally, a knob turned under his hand and he pushed his way inside. The room was dark and along the floor to ceiling windows were tables of computers facing into the room. Moving around the lecture desks in the middle of the room, he slipped under them, his back against the window so he could see in. The woman in the stairwell was at the door, staring inside as her fingers clawed at the window. His stomach lurched, wondering if she could see him, but decided she couldn't since he was looking from a strange angle himself.

Then, with the light from the outside street lights behind him, he saw someone else in the room. A man stood up and stumbled limply into the light of the door window, seeming to stare at the woman at the door than slowly turned to face Sasori. The panic surged up again as the man stumbled towards him, bumping into tables and chairs. Sasori didn't care if this was real or not, he was scared and trapped under the desk.

Reaching behind him, he opened the window latch without thinking. Its small hatch opened out and up, giving him just enough room to slide out into the cool night air. But he was on the second floor, too high to land safely, but he clung to the window ledge, hanging to get out of the room with the strange stumbling people. Glancing behind him, he saw one of the campuses trees rising close by. He tried to calm his breathing, calculating how far away the nearest branches were. It was closer than the tree at his house that he and Deidara had been escaping out of for years. If he pushed off hard, he could make it.

Steeling himself with a deep breath, he planted his feet against the brick wall and steadied himself. Pushing off hard, he used the wall to jump out and up towards the branches, reaching his arm out for the branch. As he jumped the man's hand reached out from the window, catching the laces on his shoes as he did. It was just a small tug, but enough to alter his momentum causing him to miss the branch.

And he fell.

* * *

R&R

~S


	2. Chapter 2

**Humans vs Zombies**

**The Ultimate Tag**

[A/n: First of all, I'm going to address this here since people have anonymously messaged me and I can't respond to them. This story will show up when you search for Sasori and Deidara **because they are both main characters in this story**. This isn't a SasoDei story and it isn't even really an DeiIta story because the relationship part is not important for the story. That note is in the summary in case you absolutely hate DeiIta/ItaDei and don't want to read it, but Sasori will remain as a character tag because he is a main character so please don't message me telling me to remove the tag or report the fic because of 'inappropriate tagging'.

If you have a problem with that, come off anon so I can respond to you privately, or message me on my tumblr so I can respond (my tumblr's the same as my pen name) that way.

Second, thanks for reading and reviews! Sorry this took so long to post, this semester's been a bit more stressful than I anticipated.]

* * *

**Chapter two:**

**Venturing out.**

"We should get hoards of alcohol!"

"I don't think that would be a good idea," Itachi said, checking the time on his phone. "The RA will protest, plus Kisame gets a little weird when he's had a lot of alcohol… You do too, you know."

"So does Sasori, ha!" Deidara swung his bag in wide angles. "All the more reason, un! Let's have a party this weekend!"

"Maybe, but we're really late getting back, we shouldn't get into any more trouble than we already might be," Itachi said, shouldering his bag. He ignored Deidara's grumbling as they headed back to the school. They had gotten kicked out of the movie theater halfway through for not actually watching the movie and had to run before the movie called the cops. Instead they had found a city park to curl up together in private again. Movies were always boring after all. When they finally untangled, the clocks on their phones read two in the morning and they had to scramble to pull their clothes back on and ran back to the school. The gate was closed, so they were walking around looking for somewhere to climb. They had to get over or they would be disqualified from the game.

Deidara waved him off, eyeing a tree that grew close to the wall. "This one's good. Kinda close to the dorms, don't you think?"

"Not really…" Itachi muttered, but walked up to it.

"You first."

"Why?"

"So I can stare at your butt while you're going up, un," Deidara replied with a smirk. Itachi gave him a look, but Deidara just continued grinning at him. "Well, go on."

"Maybe… I want to star—"

"Too bad," Deidara waved him off, smirking the whole time. "You're my bitch and I say I get to watch you climb up the tree, un." He propped himself against the tree to prepare his viewing pleasure, but Itachi just inched forward until he was leaned against Deidara, kissing him softly. "No, no, no. You can't kiss your way out of this," Deidara laughed, giving him a small shove. "Get your ass up there, un."

"One more," Itachi said, leaning down.

Deidara grinned and leaned up to give him a kiss, but stopped and pulled away. "Did you hear that?" he asked, looking up the tree.

"What?" Itachi asked, looking unhappy as he stood up straighter.

"People yelling," Deidara replied with a frown.

"Like you said Sasori's been hearing?" Itachi asked, raising an eyebrow, but he listened carefully. "People shouldn't be out this late though…"

Deidara gave a broad gesture to the two of them, reminding him that they were also out much later than they were allowed. Turning, he climbed up the tree first and slid on top of the brick wall that protected the school's boundaries. Itachi joined him, perching carefully on his toes as he glanced around the school grounds.

They had walked further down the wall from the gate that they had originally thought. Before them was the cluster of trees that made up the small woods on campus and the Social Science buildings. They couldn't see anyone from their position, but there were definitely voices yelling on the grounds. Great bursts of yelling, scared and uncertain. It didn't sound much like a game to them, but either way why were these people making so much noise? They would get campus security out here and everyone would get into trouble. Including one particular couple that had accidentally spent too much time alone and naked who needed to sneak back into their dorms before anyone saw them.

"What the hell is going on, un?" Deidara finally voiced both of their confusions, but he sounded more annoyed than alarmed. "Fuck, I'm going to have to apologize to Sasori for making fun of him…"

Itachi gave a soft nod, still trying to figure out what was going on, but it was impossible from their angle. "I don't think we should go straight down the path in case security comes to stop those people," he said, gesturing. "Let's go around through the woods and cross the baseball fields. It's less open than the pavilion field."

Deidara nodded, then smirked. "Get lost in the—"

Itachi nudged him, rolling his eyes. "We're not sleeping in the woods tonight."

"Who said anythi—"

"Let's just go now," Itachi said, feeling slightly exasperated as he gripped the sides of the wall to slid his body down, dropping the last three feet with a soft thump on the grass. Deidara didn't slide, but jumped down, landing in a rolling heap with a groan as he stood up slowly to check to see if he hadn't broken anything. Itachi gave him a simmering look, but Deidara just smirked and strutted off into the woods with the brunette following after him wondering when his heart would finally give out because of the blond.

Walking through the unkempt woods was difficult in the dark. The lights that shone across the brick laid pathways around campus didn't penetrate the leaves very well, though they could see enough to know which direction they were going. Several times they tripped over roots and loose stones and had to grab onto each other or nearby trees to steady themselves. Very quickly, Deidara grew less interested in getting through the woods and more taking advantage in the dark, but a sound ahead of them made him pause in a second attempt to pull Itachi into a kiss. Someone was pushing through the brush towards them, panting heavily like they had been running. As they burst through the trees, Itachi reached his hand out to catch the person and steady them as they began to tumble.

"Are you alright?" he asked, but the person pushed him away, backing up in a panic.

When his eyes finally fell on the two of them, it died. "Sorry," he said, glancing back from where he came. "Yeah, I'm fine, I just thought that…"

"Thought what?" Itachi asked, following his gaze.

"What the hell are you people doing making all this noise?" Deidara demanded, pointing back to the center of campus.

The man stared at him as if his question wasn't quite sinking in. "What are you doing out here?" he asked, eyes darting from Deidara to Itachi.

"Hey, I asked first, un," Deidara said irritably, taking a step forward, but Itachi stilled him with a hand on his shoulder.

"We're heading back to the dorms," Itachi said, frowning. "Why are you out so late?"

"I'm trying to get out!" the man exclaimed. "They're crazy!"

"Who?"

"The people on this campus! Everyone's lost their minds," he said, the panic returning. "I hope I'm fucking dreaming."

"Uh…" Deidara's irritation was replaced by confusion. "Why?"

"Because they killed my friend!" the man nearly shrieked. "What the hell is going on?"

"Who killed them?" Itachi said, as confused as Deidara was. Had someone snuck onto campus and started attacking people? The man's panic seemed worse than that.

"The students, a teacher—I don't know what's going on!" the man was yelling now, ignoring Itachi's quiet gesture for him to calm down.

Behind him, another person emerged from the trees, staggering as the bushes caught their clothes. Deidara and Itachi could barely see the person in the dark, but as the man turned to follow the sound, he gave a strangling scream as the person grabbed at him, pulling him closer to bite down on the exposed flesh of his arm. Shocked into silence, Deidara and Itachi stared frozen as the newcomer dragged the man still screaming to the ground, still gnawing at his skin.

"Zombie!" Deidara exclaimed suddenly, making Itachi jump. He wasn't sure if the blond had said the word out of fear or excitement, but it was almost as ridiculous as what they were watching.

Itachi grabbed Deidara's arm and forced him to plunge back into the trees, running with his hand up to keep himself from accidently running into a blackened tree. "Is this some kind of joke to go along with the game?" he asked as they slide out of the woods and against the link fence that bordered the baseball field. They climbed over it and knelt down on the grass together, Deidara's eyes owlishly wide. "I mean…" Itachi wasn't really sure what he meant.

"They wouldn't let us play this late at night, un," Deidara said, crawling closer. "Oh my god, Itachi, do you think that was a real zombie?"

"Zombies aren't real," Itachi said firmly, but Deidara was quickly shaking his head, still wide eyed. '_Famous last words_', they said, though the blond didn't say that aloud. "If it was, we just left someone to get eaten."

"We don't have any weapons!" Deidara said, shaking his school bag. "I just have duct tape and the nerf gun, un. Maybe a pen or two."

"We're not killing anyone," Itachi said firmly. "This is probably just a really stupid joke and we're all going to get in trouble for being out after curfew. Let's just get back to the dorm."

Deidara nodded, clearly enthralled by the idea that had wedged itself in his mind. They kept to the edges of the field, hurrying to hop the other fence and over a small stream. The bridge was nearby, but Itachi didn't want to be seen and the blond's blind love of excitement seemed to overwhelm any apprehension he should be feeling. Their dorm was on the other side, across a small street where people could pull their cars up to the back parking lot. There were people outside.

"Fire exit," Deidara said, pointing to the unmarked door on the side.

"Wont that set off the alarm?"

Deidara shook his head. "The alarm isn't triggered by the door opening, un," he explained. "Sasori and I use it all the time cause it's faster than going all the way around. You just need a swipe key card."

"And you have one."

"Of course," Deidara smirked. As they hurried across the street, a few people noticed them and started coming towards them. Itachi noticed that they stumbled slightly like the person in the woods. Maybe their clothes hadn't gotten caught on the brush like he had thought. Deidara took the winding stairs to the side door three at a time and pulled his wallet from his pocket to dig out the swipe key to get them inside.

As they leaned against the door, breathing heavily, Itachi glanced over at the blond. "Where did you get that card?" he asked.

"They were in the offices," Deidara told him. Something bumped against the door behind them and they both took a step away from it. "Each dorm has their own staff key card."

"You stole it?"

"It's not stealing if I return it, un," said the blond with his nose turned up defiantly.

Itachi decided not to argue with him and together they climbed the stairs to the fifth floor. He could see why Deidara preferred to use this exit, the opening on their floor was just two doors down from their own room and Deidara always hated waiting for elevators. The hallway was empty, so they hurried without sneaking to their door and quickly slipped inside, slamming it shut.

Kisame startled awake on the couch where he had been dozing after a movie, looking up at them as he blinked sleep from his eyes. "Where the hell have you guys been?" he asked, managing to look slightly amused. "You have leaves in your hair."

"We did," Itachi said, reaching up to brush out the offending leaves. "But the—"

"There are zombies outside!" Deidara burst out. "We saw someone eating someone else, un!"

"What?" Kisame frowned.

"I think it's a joke," Itachi muttered.

"Where's Sasori? I have to tell him," Deidara was practically bursting with excitement as he turned to walk towards Sasori's door.

"I thought he was with you."

Stopping, Deidara backed out of the hallway and stared at him. "What?" he asked, looking confused. "No, we went out on a date, un. Sasori didn't come back?"

Kisame shook his head and reached for the remote to turn the TV off. "I thought he tagged along with you guys," he repeated.

Deidara looked back at Itachi, excitement from the run fading to concern. The brunette dug into his bag for his phone and looked at it. Their classes had gotten out five hours ago. "Maybe he found something to do?" Itachi suggested, unsure.

The blond pulled his bag off his shoulder and dug out his own phone. Usually the two of them didn't call one another. Neither enjoyed talking on the phone, but he was not waiting for a text message. Quickly dialing the redhead's number, he put the phone to his ear and began pacing irritably back and forth.

No answer.

"Shit, what the hell," he snapped, pulling it away so he could send the text in case the redhead wasn't answering him on principle.

"Maybe he met somebody and is getting some," Kisame suggested, though he looked a little uncertain. Deidara's worry was slightly infectious.

"Sasori?" the blond clarified. "He hates touching people. How would that even work, un?"

"He doesn't mind you," Kisame added with a shrug.

"That's different," Deidara waved it off, then turned to look at Itachi. "I have to go back out and find him, un."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Itachi said softly. "It's too late anyway, Dei. You've been up all day."

"But that guy said they killed his friend, un!"

"It's a game," Itachi insisted. "Real zombies being here, eating people is impossible."

"But what if it's not?" Deidara cried, throwing his hands up. "What if… he… Itachi—" His panic was stopped by Itachi smothering him into a gentle hug, the brunette rubbing his shoulder gently.

"I know you're worried, but you can't do anything right now," Itachi whispered. "We'll go when the sun comes up. It'll be safer…"

Deidara wanted to sleep in his own room, but Itachi asked him to stay with him instead. Even if that meant being kept awake by the blond's restlessness. The brunette was worried that the man would dart out by himself to find Sasori even though he had promised not to. Deidara didn't usually break his promises, but promises didn't usually involve his best friend. The ceiling of Itachi's bedroom would be illuminated every five minutes from the screen light of Deidara's phone as he checked to see if Sasori had messaged him back.

When the sun finally rose, Itachi rolled over and reached for the blond, finding him gone and awoke completely with a start, fearing that he had indeed left. A sigh of relief slipped out when he saw the blond sitting in on the desk staring out the window towards the campus grounds.

"I thought you left," Itachi said, sitting up.

"I promised I wouldn't, un," Deidara mumbled, resting his head against the window.

Sliding off the bed, Itachi went over and followed his gaze. There were still people wandering around outside, not seeming to have anywhere in particular to go. It was eerie and made his the hair on the back of his neck stand on edge. "Did you sleep?" he asked quietly, reaching over to move Deidara's hair so he could see his face.

"A little... not much," Deidara muttered, peeling his eyes away from the window and rest his head against Itachi's shoulder. "What the hell is going on, un?"

"I don't know... I wonder if someone's called the police," Itachi replied, patting his shoulder and turned to the door as a knock sounded and Kisame stepped in, already dressed.

"Couldn't sleep much myself," he commented, shifting from foot to foot. "I keep getting text from friends on campus asking if I know if this thing is a joke or something. You think we should just stay here until someone figures out what's going on?"

Deidara shook his head firmly. "I'm going to find Sasori," he stated.

"I figured," Kisame gave a smirk and shook his school backpack. "I packed some stuff. You know, necessary survival shit. Cause we're coming with you."

Itachi nodded his agreement, leaning against his desk as he spun a bit of Deidara's hair around his finger. "I would feel better if we came."

Kisame nodded seriously. "It always starts to go to hell when someone goes off on their own," he commented.

The brunette started to remind them that this was a game not real, but remembering the screaming last night and the person in the woods, he wasn't sure. "What sort of stuff?" he asked.

"Food, extra water, first aid, blanket, my knife," Kisame shrugged.

"I'll get my bag," Deidara mumbled then left the room to head to his own across the suite.

When he was gone, Itachi heaved a sigh and stretched his back. "You think someone's called the cops?" he asked again.

"Probably," Kisame said with a shrug. "I don't know if whatever's going on is campus wide though. The people who've texted me are mostly on the science side of campus."

"This side."

"Yeah."

Going to his dresser, Itachi pulled out clothes to tug on so when Deidara came back he would be mostly ready. "It's weird seeing Deidara worried, but it's cause of Sasori... if he was here, they'd both want to go out anyway."

"It is like a game though," Kisame grinned.

"Except that people could be dead," Itachi reminded him.

"Like a game," Kisame repeated.

Itachi sighed and finished getting dressed while Kisame went back into the common room. Itachi didn't think much of this game anymore. Emptying his backpack of his school supplies and books, he wondered what to replace them with. Deidara and Kisame liked survival things much more than he did. Yet he wanted to contribute, so he dug through his drawers, pulling out an extra set of clothes just in case, his own knife Deidara had given him in Sophomore year for his birthday, matches and a lighter, a flashlight with extra batteries and his throw blanket. When he stepped into the common room, he walked to the kitchen and added the bars of granola and other things that wouldn't spoil and would be easy to eat.

"Deidara?" he called softly. The blond answered as he came out of his own room, dressed in his normal clothes again and zipping up his hoodie under his jacket. "Here, eat this," he said, tossing him an apple. "You didn't sleep much, it'll keep you awake better than coffee." He slipped some pain reliever and allergy medicine in his bag just in case before putting a few water bottles inside. It was a little heavy, but not as heavy as it was with his school books inside.

Deidara ate the apple without arguing, sliding his backpack on himself as he did so and went to the door to stair through the keyhole on his tip-toes. "Do you think they're in the dorms?" he asked after a moment.

"I don't know," Itachi replied, shaking his head. "I think we should decide where we're going before we leave though."

"I agree," Kisame said, coming over to the kitchen counter. "We don't know where exactly Sasori … got distracted," he finally decided. "It could be anywhere on campus, or maybe he never left the building."

"I was going to start at the Social Science building, un," Deidara said, pointing at the obligatory map that each of the dorms had. "That's where I last saw him. Our class was on the third floor, un. I left before he did last night, so it probably took him a while to leave…"

"Why?" Kisame asked, frowning at the map.

"It just takes him a while to leave places," Deidara said shortly, as though it was something that wasn't important and didn't need to be explained. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a sharpie and began drawing on the map, marking off the building with an X. The two of them never questioned each other's' quirks, but helped when they got too bad. Their class got out at 8:50PM, which meant that Sasori probably hadn't left the building until 9:30 or 9:45. He and Itachi hadn't seen any weird things when they had left. People had even chased them out of the campus like the real game.

Squinting at the map, he gave a frustrated sigh. "I think the Social Science building," he repeated, tapping the marked spot.

"Should we check the other buildings closer to the dorms?" Kisame asked, gesturing to them as he came over. "If he left and had to take cover…"

"No, Deidara's right, we should check that building first. Retrace steps," Itachi said with a nod.

"I hate when I lose Sasori," Deidara said, with a roll of his eyes. It took Itachi a moment to realize Deidara was making a joke. The blond had an expression on his face halfway between concern and bitter amusement. It made Itachi feel better to know that he was able to do so. Deidara was always useless when he was frantic about something, his emotions skyrocketing in the most inconvenient times. If he could make a joke, however bitter the humor was, he would keep his head.

They climbed down the stairs, Kisame reaching out every so often to keep Deidara from getting too ahead of them by tugging at the back of his backpack. When they got to the first floor, Kisame cracked it open a few inches, peering around at the parking lot visible.

"How are we getting to the building without being seen?" Itachi asked.

The other two considered this for a moment, then Deidara gave a small shrug. "The woods again?" Deidara suggested.

"Might be dangerous… it'd be easy for them to sneak up on us," Kisame commented. "The bridge is kinda dangerous, right? Could get cornered…"

"And we'd have to jump," Deidara said, turning to stare wide eyed at Itachi. He grabbed the brunette's hand and pulled him close. "Together."

He snorted as Itachi rolled his eyes. "It's only six feet above the water," the brunette muttered as he glanced out of the door way himself. "How about we go the longer way? Through the parking garage. There will be more places to hide… more escape routes and if we climb the fence on the far end it'll put us near the Art building."

"Then we can go around to the south door to the science building, cool, un," Deidara said with a nod. "Let's go."

They walked over the grass and street to cross the low stream and climb over the concrete wall into the parking structure. No one noticed them, but there were people wandering aimlessly in the structure so they had to creep between the small space between the cars and wall. Itachi wasn't sure if he should be amused or scared. Really, what they were doing was absolutely ridiculous. Zombies? That was just insane. This had to be a joke. Deidara's concern was real though. Even though his eyes were lighting up each time they dodged or flattened themselves under a car, Itachi saw him continuously glancing out to see how close they were to the place they needed to climb out.

"Deidara," he whispered, reaching out to catch his sleeve before he could dart away again. "He'll be fine."

"I know," Deidara assured him, shrugging it off. "He's too stubborn to be anything else, un."

Itachi nodded and let him go so he could hurry between the cars to where Kisame was waiting. "That girl is covered in blood," Kisame pointed out when Itachi joined them.

"Hey, she's in my science class," Deidara commented, peering over the car. "She's at the table next to me and Sasori, un… She looks horrible…" Her hair was matted in the blood and looked that she hadn't showered in days. Her clothes were rumpled and dirty and she was missing her jacket.

Kisame peered at her with a frown, then looked back at them. "If she is a zombie, she's dead…"

"Holy shit we're looking at a dead person from my class, un."

"Don't say things like that," Itachi said, pulling them away. "She's not dead, she's right there. Let's just get Sasori and get back to the dorms."

The two nodded and they turned away from the girl and continued their path. Itachi was happy to find out that there was a small set of stairs leading out of the lot which meant they didn't have to climb over the wall. Deidara made several unhappy complaints as they slipped out, wanting to have more of an adventure by climbing over things. They hurried against the wall of the building ducking low when they saw people, when the people had stumbled passed, they ran to the Social Science building and leaned against it to peer around and make sure no one had seen them.

"Okay, let's go in—"

"Wait," Deidara cried, starting forward. Kisame jerked him back and they fell to the ground behind a bush in the garden they were standing in. A zombie person was slumping passed them, arms slumped to his sides with his school bag dragging behind him. When he had his back to them, Deidara pulled out of Kisame's grip and crawled out to pick something up off the ground. "It's Sasori's phone," the blond told them, holding it up. Its screen was cracked even though the black and red case was still on it. The blond held it carefully, pushing the power button. The screen lit up, displaying the notifications of the many messages Deidara had sent him. "I don't understand…"

Kisame peered at it then where it had been. "What don't you understand? He dropped it maybe."

"Sasori takes really good care of his things… he wouldn't let his phone break, un… He wouldn't just leave it," Deidara started to stand but the other two grabbed him and yanked him back.

"He's not in the Science building," Itachi whispered. He looked around then looked up. "The window's open…"

His friends looked up and frowned. "That's too high," Kisame said, shaking his head. "There's no way he'd jump down from there… Hell, I wouldn't even try that."

"Maybe… something happened," Itachi said quietly, his hand clenched tightly on Deidara's, feeling the blonds anxiety rising almost as fast as his own. "He had to… Dei-Deidara!" He held him tighter as the blond tried again to leap to his feet. "Calm down, you have to calm down and think," he said calmly. "Where would he go?"

"If he jumped—"

"We have to find him fast," Itachi finished, nodding slowly. "Where would he go?"

"The Art building?" Kisame suggested, holding onto Deidara as well. "If he jumped down, he might've hurt himself… especially if he just left his phone here. He was trying to get away, that's the closest place."

Deidara, staring wide eyed at Itachi, nodded like a bobble head. "There's a door… there, un," he said, glancing over Itachi's shoulder. "What if he's a zombie?"

Itachi opened his mouth, but couldn't think of anything to say. Kisame answered instead, patting the blond on the head, "you can keep him as a pet in the shed and he'll never beat you at video games again."

Deidara gave a slightly high pitched laugh and Itachi assumed Kisame had made a reference to a movie. A sudden voice shouted a warning, causing them all to jump. Two men were walking slowly towards them, their eyes glassy and their legs stumbling. Their mouths hung slack as their heads lulled on their shoulders as if they didn't have much strength to hold them up. The three of them leapt to their feet and backed away, but the two men took a few faster steps closer. The voice that had warned them called out again and Kisame glanced around to see the window of the first floor of the Art building open and a girl waving to get their attention, pointing at the door.

Kisame grabbed his friends arms and shoved them towards the building. They half ran, half walked, still a little confused, but as they cleared the building a few others spotted them and started hurrying towards them as well, a horrible preening sound coming from their mouths. The sound made Deidara run a bit faster, throwing himself at the door. One didn't open, barred from the inside, but the right side did and he threw it open, letting Kisame and Itachi in before he slammed it shut. The left side door was barricaded closed and a man was already pushing the vending machine in front of the one they had come through as the girl in the window came around the corner.

"Are you guys okay?" the man asked as he stepped away from the machine.

"Are you bitten?" the girl asked, a little more sternly.

"No," Kisame said, holding out his arms to show her. "What's going on? Do you guys know anything?"

"Who the hell knows, but people are going batshit insane," the girl said. She had a sharp tool in her hand, one Itachi had seen in the art studio at Deidara's house.

"Have you seen a little redhead kid, un?" Deidara asked, holding his hand out to gesture Sasori's height, a few inches below his own.

The two looked at one another, but shook their heads. "We only got here this morning," the man said with a shrug. "We had classes... but there's dead people everywhere! Even teachers."

"They're really zombies?" Kisame asked, looking torn from being mortified and interested.

"For lack of any other word," the man replied. "We only cleared that classroom there, but there could be people in the other rooms..."

Deidara gave a firm nod and started towards the center of the building with Itachi following close behind. "Should we have some kind of weapon just in case?" he asked the blond who seemed to have developed tunnel vision.

"I'll find something, un," Deidara muttered darkly.

Itachi gave a quiet chuckle. "I hope you get this determined if you ever lose me," he said just as quiet, but Deidara stopped and turned to look at him with a confused look.

"Of course I would," the blond replied. "I'd blow up the whole school if you get hurt, so make sure you don't, okay?" He reached out and prodded Itachi's shoulder firmly, making the brunette laugh softly in slight embarrassment. Deidara smirked back at him, then began peeking into the classrooms. "Where would you go, you idiot..." he murmured under his breath.

"Hey, careful you two," Kisame called, coming up behind them. "Those two said there were zombies in here too. They just cleared the classroom and hallway."

Itachi peered around the hallway corner when they came to it and frowned. There was a body lying on the hallway, unmoving. No one he recognized, but he couldn't tell if it was alive or dead. "Does Sasori have a class in here? Maybe he went somewhere familiar."

"Upstairs," Deidara said quietly, then jumped and whirled around as a hand came down on his shoulder.

The man who had let them in shushed him and jumped away to avoid Deidara's swing. "Shit, it's just me," he cried softly. "Look, come into the classroom with us. It's too dangerous."

"Our friend could be in this building," Itachi said. "And he might be hurt."

"And he might be a zombie," the man said with a slight sneer. "Either way, you can't just run in blindly."

Itachi started to put together an argument to agree with the man that Deidara would listen to, but the blond had already broken away from them and ran up the stairs to the next floor. His shoes made a sharp sound on the steps so he shifted his weight as he ran to land on his toes, silencing his footfalls. When he reached the landing to the second floor, he carefully pushed the door opened, but it still made a horrible scraping sound that echoed in the stairwell. Cringing, he crouched low and glanced back apologetically as Itachi came up with Kisame close by.

"Sorry," he whispered and pushed the door open a little more, wincing horribly at the sounds. Did no one ever oil these doors? Stepping out into the hallway, he glanced to both sides then began walking down the hall, pausing every so often to listen. Itachi was a little surprised to watch him. The blond hated silence and made noise just by being alive and he certainly wasn't a quiet walker, but he was being quite silent in his movements.

They turned the corner with nothing in sight and Itachi felt the tension in his shoulders lesson slightly, Kisame standing up straighter next to him. Maybe there was nothing on this floor at all, or everything was behind closed classroom doors. A hand shot out in front of him making him jump backwards into Kisame as the body it belonged to stumbled out of an open classroom door towards them. Itachi was too shocked to react as the teacher grabbed at him, but was thrown off by the class room door slamming into his body as Deidara slammed it closed. The man grunted as his body was crushed in between the door and frame, but the blond pulled the door opened to repeat the process again and again until the man had fallen back into the classroom. He threw his body against the door, it clicked shut with a solid latch, but the door angled slightly. The man's fingers were still trapped in the wood, broken and bleeding. The man turned as best he was able and opened his mouth against it. If he was making a noise, they couldn't hear it.

Breathing heavily, Deidara rounded on Itachi with such an angry expression the brunette took a step away from him, but the blond just reached out to make sure he wasn't hurt. "Damn," Kisame sounded impressed behind him, but the blond didn't reply.

"He didn't…" Itachi started, staring at the door window, "react at all…" He stepped away from the door, his hand finding Deidara's to pull him along. He should be in pain, terrible pain. He had never seen Deidara react to something so violently before though he knew he had a horrible temper. The blond had reacted to keep him safe, but the amount of times he had crushed the man should have done more damage than it actually did.

Deidara gave a firm and irritated scoff, but it was directed towards the attacker. This was definitely a teacher. Deidara didn't have any of his classes, but he was always coming in to borrow chalk from his professor, disrupting class loudly in a joking manner. He felt his chest tightening as his heart pounded against his ribs. If Sasori wasn't in this building, he wouldn't know where else to look, not that that would stop him from looking. But staying out too much would put Itachi in danger which was something he absolutely did not want to do. It was frustrating. He could stuff Itachi into a safer place or go find Sasori, not do both. Itachi wouldn't let him go off on his own.

He walked faster, his eyes darting around with his hand firmly grasped in Itachi's. Each open door looked dangerous now. Each closed door had an ominous air to them. If Sasori was here, he'd be in his classroom. The redhead wasn't stupid, even if he was running away and hiding, he'd do it logically, so Deidara had to think logically too. He would hide somewhere that someone would find him if they followed a trail, only Sasori didn't leave a trail, so Deidara was going off their own class schedule. He stopped suddenly, Itachi crashing into him, and frowned. What if he couldn't get to the second floor? The phone tucked safely away in his pocket made a shiver roll down his back. That had been a really far height to fall from.

He had to find him, so he continued walking, letting go of Itachi's hand so he could defend himself if he had to. They passed a few more open doors, which they quietly closed as they passed when there were people inside. Deidara stopped at an open door to the art room he and Sasori had classes in thrice a week, vaguely aware that Itachi was right behind him and peered inside. There was a girl in the room, but she was walking strangely enough that they knew she was one of the zombies. She was pacing the length of a desk pushed against the wall, sometimes clawing at its surface but couldn't move it. Itachi grabbed Deidara's arm and pulled him back.

"Something's—"

"Behind it," Deidara nodded, glancing back in with him. "Do you think it's him?"

"I hope so," Itachi murmured.

They silently debated different ways of getting passed the girl, but Kisame walked passed them and picked up the closest chair to use as a weapon as he smashed it against the girl's head. She fell under the chair as it clattered loudly in the room causing them all to cringe and listen. "What?" he asked at their stares. "I wanted to drop one too." Itachi and Deidara hurried inside as Kisame dragged the girl into the hallway and they shut the door. They didn't know if the blow had killed the zombie girl, nor did they want any more coming because of the noise. Deidara went over to the desk, glancing back at Itachi looking uncertain. Itachi gave him a nod and the blond turned and tapped four times on the desk surface with his finger.

There was a moments silence before the tap was returned.

"Shit," Deidara gasped, grabbing the sides of the desk and pulling it away from the wall as the other two hurried over to help. The desk had a sliding door on the other side Deidara knew to contain various art supplies, but when he had the desk away from the wall so he could open it, his eyes fell on Sasori instead, his brown eyes wider than the blond had ever seen them. Deidara reached in and dragged him out and into a bone breaking embrace that the redhead, for once, collapsed into without a single protest.

* * *

R&R


End file.
